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Topic: Observation hive swarmed today (Read 1209 times)

Bees were clustered outside of the entrance on the OB yesterday and the bees in the hive were running all over the place. Past experience says that the tube is blocked. I used a vacuum to clear the bees at the 90 joint. Today, during lunch, they were back out side of entrance. There were still enough bees to cover the bottom 2 deep frames and some on the first 2 medium frames. My wife called me at 3:30 this afternoon and said that they had swarmed and completely disappeared. This was a complete surprise because they had just started to build wax on the medium frames and they have 4 medium foundations that have not been touched. The swarm took all of the honey, what little there was from the 2 medium frames. At least 1/2 of the hive is gone. There is some capped brood and 2 queen cells. Last year they did not swarm until all 3 deeps were full of honey and larva. The rest of my hives were doing some heavy flying today. I just finished pulling splits from all of my over wintered hives other wise they would probably be swarming. Anyone else have an OB swarm like this one?Jim

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"If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper you are misinformed."--Mark Twain

The fear of swarming is exactly why I went with a 5 frame deep OB hive. Mine is located in a business office with +/-100 employees and I simply can't afford a sudden swarm. I still occasionally steal the queen or frames of brood to reduce swarming urges but when I go on vacation for 2 weeks 5 deep frames gives me a fudge factor.

Thanks David,Being that this is a training hive it is not so bad. I did think I would be a able to find it and hive the swarm. My wife is a little more upset with the bees from "HER" hive, even though "Your not putting that hive in my house" was her original statement when I was building it. :-DJim

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"If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper you are misinformed."--Mark Twain

The fear of swarming is exactly why I went with a 5 frame deep OB hive. Mine is located in a business office with +/-100 employees and I simply can't afford a sudden swarm. I still occasionally steal the queen or frames of brood to reduce swarming urges but when I go on vacation for 2 weeks 5 deep frames gives me a fudge factor.

D this is a 8 frame hive, 2 deep frames in the bottom and 6 medium frames above it. They had just started to build wax and put just a little bit of honey in the bottom 2 medium frames. :-\Jim

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"If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper you are misinformed."--Mark Twain

How cool is that? Your wife is lucky she could witness the swarm! Now you get to watch the whole process start...a great opportunity!

Scott

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Really do wish I could talk my wife into letting me do and OB. Don't really think there is much chance of that even though my adventure into bee keeping is her idea. She thinks it will help reduce my stress levels. Hope she is right.

The fear of swarming is exactly why I went with a 5 frame deep OB hive. Mine is located in a business office with +/-100 employees and I simply can't afford a sudden swarm. I still occasionally steal the queen or frames of brood to reduce swarming urges but when I go on vacation for 2 weeks 5 deep frames gives me a fudge factor.

D this is a 8 frame hive, 2 deep frames in the bottom and 6 medium frames above it. They had just started to build wax and put just a little bit of honey in the bottom 2 medium frames. :-\Jim

Wholly molly, that's a big one. I got nothing other than how old was the queen?

D, This hive tried to swarm on July 19, 2012, per my log. I had had the q excluder in frame the week before because the 3 deep frame ob hive was busting and I was going out of town for the week. They swarmed the day after I got back. My wife was in the house and heard them taking off. I put a swarm box next to the opening and hand scooped bees into the nuc. Then I very slowly opened the q excluder to let the q out. I took about 15 to 20 minutes to open it. I did hear a bee get crunched. The bees moved back into the OBH. I built new sides for this hive and the next Sunday I took it apart. All three frames had q cells. My wife, Judy, said she wanted the one with 2 q cells for "her hive". I rebuilt the hive, put that frame next to a deep foundation with the 6 mediums above it. We watched this q develope. She is only 7 months old.

David, Build the nicest hive you can and she will come to love it. I made mine out of solid walnut. It helps. It is a major conversation piece. Every one that visits has to see it.

Jim

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"If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper you are misinformed."--Mark Twain

Great... now I'm going to get all paranoid about my OB hive swarming when spring breaks here. 7 1/2 months old?, I'm completely out of suggestions. As you well know OB hives are more prone to swarming due to their size and that's the cross we OB operators shoulder. Can you post any photos of it? I always love to see others OB hives.

My OB queen is heading into her 3rd season and I was already planning on putting her into the production rotation in early May. I'll let the hive raise their own queen. It definitely suppresses the swarming urge and is fun to watch but I'm like a cat in a room full of rocking chairs from when the queen hatches until I see eggs.

They are true swarm cells. They are on the bottom of the bottom frame. I can just barely see them. Did not see them until after they swarmed. One good thing that I did find today after getting back from bee college is that the q must have been laying eggs right up to the last day. When they left there were 2 small groups of brood on one side of a frame and a medium size group of brood on the other viable side. It is very hard to see eggs in the ob but today there was a nice size group of open larvae between the 2 groups of capped brood. Hopefully the inside of the frames are the same. That will help keep the hive numbers up until the new q gets mated and starts laying. Jim

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"If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper you are misinformed."--Mark Twain

I checked them last night and the 2 cells that we saw are only cups not cells and now are not being covered in bees. The bees are very calm which usually means that they have at least one q cell in there. There is a lot of space between the frames and even under the frames that we cannot see. We will let you know what happens.

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"If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper you are misinformed."--Mark Twain

One of the neatest things is when that new queen hatches, then runs around the hive and sings (pipping) to introduce herself to everyone. In my hive (just a two frame "pine" OH...not walnut :() it can be heard from some distance away. When watching her it seems a virgin queen needs to touch and sing to everyone.

Last year my OH swarmed. I had removed the old queen when they began to make swarm cells. When the first one hatched, I heard a queen pipping, then a few days later heard a second voice. The next day they swarmed. Thought I was good...still have the second queen....No!...A few days later the other virgin queen left with the rest of the hive. I usually do not keep it set up over the summer, just cannot keep up with a 2 frame hive in the summer, but that is not how I wanted to empty it!

That's rough Jim. We newer did hear any piping. Only had one queen cell survive. If I start hearing piping in one of my hives, from what I learned in Bee College last week, I will go into it and reduce it to one q cell. Usually the piping means the bees are keeping the Q's apart for multiple swarming. Jim

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"If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper you are misinformed."--Mark Twain